Compton, Powers Top Americans In UCI Standings

The first UCI Ranking of the 2012/2013 cyclocross season was released today. Strong off his win at the first World Cup Belgian Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Revor) remains on top of the elite men’s ranking while World Champion Marianne Vos (Rabobank) is still on top of the elite women’s classification.

The UCI is using a rolling 12-month calendar for elite men and women to calculate the standings, so not much as changed singe the final rankings were released at the end of last year’s cross season. As a reminder, the standings are used to seed the start grid of all UCI races.

With his five C1 wins in the USA and his seventh place at Tabor, US champion Jeremy Powers (Rapha-Focus) moved up two spots to tenth place. A few riders took advantage of the busy early season calendar in the USA to grab their first UCI points, such as Mike Sherer (Optum p/b KBS), Tobin Ortenblad (CalGiant/Specialized) and Adam Craig (Rabobank-Giant).

The highest ranked under-23 rider is Belgian Wietse Bosmans in 22nd spot with 504 pts. He has a lead of 64-points on Mike Teunissen of the Netherlands and 196-points on American Zach McDonald. Though he is still 21 years old, two-time under-23 world champion Lars van der Haar now races in the elite men’s category, as approved by the UCI; the young Dutch rider sits in seventh spot in the ranking.

US champion remains in third place, 380 points down from Vos who is starting her season in late November. With her strong early start that included a ninth place at Tabor, Kaitie Antonneau (Cannondale-cyclocrossworld.com) jumped five spots to 13th overall. Frances Morrison (J.A.M. Fund/NCC/Vittoria) made the biggest jump, up 132 spots to 137th. Canada’s Pepper Hartlon moved up to 59th and is now the highest ranked rider for her country.

The junior men’s ranking do not use a rolling 12-month calendar, and are refreshed at the start of each season. The only American in the classification, Logan Owen is in eighth place, 50 points behind leader Mathieu van der Poel of the Netherlands.